‘Les ictus amnésiques’ and Transient Global Amnesia

In March 1909, R. Benon was probably the first to report a typical case of what we now call transient global amnesia. In 1956, Bender, and independently, Guyotat and Courjon described clinical and epidemiological features of transient amnesic attacks. The condition achieved general recognition after the term transient global amnesia (TGA) was introduced by Fisher and Adams in 1958. Their historic work is the main focus of this review. They reported 17 patients, with an abrupt anterograde amnesia of short duration. Classification and criteria are outlined. Various aetiologies have been postulated, but although TGA remains a clinically distinct syndrome, usually with a good prognosis, evidence of neither ischaemia nor epilepsy is demonstrable in most patients. Theories of jugular venous reflux may be relevant in some but probably not in most cases of this heterogeneous disorder.